Yup. That could have EVERYTHING to do with it. I'm not sure if system32 is hidden by default, however, so if you open up my computer, and go to tools, folder options, then click on the view tab, and it will says "do not show hidden files and folders", and make sure the one below it "show hidden files and folders" is checked.... then sift around in there and see if you can find it.... if you can't.... big uh oh.

umm already did that. wtf do i do know?

Whew! False Alarm! I Found It

Empty your cache! Tools-->Internet Options-->"Delete Files"

If I understand correctly you get an error when the ActiveX control tries to load for Windows update...or any other ActiveX control for that matter. Do you have any kind of popup blocker running on your browser? I think Google toolbar does that by default. One thing you can try is to go to Tools-->Internet Options-->Security and then highlight "Local Intranet" and then click "Sites" then "Advanced" and add an entry for *.microsoft.com and then try Windows update again. If you did system restore it's likely that you reverted back to a level of updates that screwed up your OS so SP2 is probably your best bet for doing anything with this particular installation. You could try the network download of SP2 here:


http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

As far as the other errors you're getting with DivX...did you have it installed before? If so...try uninstalling it. You should work out whatever is going on with SP2 and other Windows Updates before you move on to the other apps.

Good luck!